WE ARE…

Protect

Protect1

Protect3

Protect4

These are the lies oil is spreading all over about us, especially out Dickinson way. We are not radical extremists. Indians are not busy body out-of-staters. Bad news, Mr. Oil, we were here first. We are not, and have not been violent in any way. Indians can’t be violent, it would be the excuse to finish the genocide.

Out of staters are more than welcome! Everyone is welcome! (Well, no fuckin’ feds. No guns. No alcohol.) Join us! Help us! Stand with us, fight. Fight for our rights to say no. We have a right to safety, to clean water, to healthy land. We stand. We resist. Boost the signal, every and any platform. Donate if you can, supplies, a few dollars, your wireless signal for a few moments, whatever you can do. We have the ability to stand strong. We have the ability to fight for our land, our earth, our water, our people, all people, everywhere. We can stand against corporations and greed. Rise!

#MattRemle – #Honor the Earth – #ProtectorsNOTProtesters – Sacred Stone Camp – Legal Defense Fund. Want a hoodie? (Winter’s coming, stock up!)

Louisiana Floods, But Climate Change A Chinese Hoax.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Max Becherer.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Max Becherer.

…According to Elizabeth Crisp, a reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rogue, Trump drove through areas littered with flood debris in his motorcade, and then visited a local church where he spoke with both flood victims and disaster relief volunteers. He then signed autographs before leaving.

[…]

But Trump’s visit, coupled with his calls for sympathy for the victims of the flooding, is ironic, considering his denial of climate change, which is expected to increase the likelihood that devastating floods like the one in Louisiana will occur.

“Climate change has already been shown to increase the amounts of rain falling in the most intense events across many parts of the world, and extreme rainfall events like this week’s Louisiana storm are expected to grow increasingly common in the coming years,” Bob Henson and Jeff Masters explained over at Weather Underground. Which is to say that while climate change can’t cause a single weather event — and while floods certainly would occur in a world without climate change — global warming is making the odds of these extreme events more and more likely.

Trump, however, does not believe that climate change is a problem worth solving. He has called it a “hoax” and argued that it was concept “created by and for the Chinese.” He has called for the United States to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, which many view as the best chance for avoiding the most catastrophic effects of global climate change. Under a Trump administration, policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions would take a backseat to his promises to mine for as many fossil fuels as possible.

If Trump truly is concerned for the people of Louisiana, supporting policies that would make devastating flooding like this more likely is a strange way of showing it. Environmental groups took notice, with the Sierra Club decrying his visit as “campaign theatrics.”

“Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is taking his reckless and dangerous denial of climate science to the heart of a crisis fueled in part by climate change,” Sierra Club Political Director Khalid Pitts said in a statement. “That’s like a tobacco lobbyist offering health tips at a cancer ward.”

Trump’s running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R), asked Republicans in Congress in 2005 to cut spending before sending disaster relief funds to Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In 2012, then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney faced backlash when he visited Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Isaac; Romney and running-mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) supported a budget that would have slashed federal disaster funding.

[…]

Trump apparently kept his own plans for a visit quiet, and did not call Edwards before planning his trip. Edwards welcomed Trump’s visit, but warned against using the visit as a photo-op, suggesting that instead Trump volunteer or donate money to the LA Flood Relief Fund. According to reporters in Louisiana, Trump’s visit included no volunteer time or announcement of financial contributions.

Trump isn’t just a con man who owes massive amounts of money to all manner of people and a habitual fraud, he’s a dyed in the wool conspiracy kook. This man makes only one life better, his own. As far as he’s concerned, the rest of us can go to hell, a hell he’d be more than happy to usher in.

Full story at Think Progress.

Marcus Amerman.

Marcus Amerman's work recently appeared in an issue of Sports Illustrated - Courtesy photo.

Marcus Amerman’s work recently appeared in an issue of Sports Illustrated – Courtesy photo.

Marcus Amerman (Choctaw-Hopi) is a very well known artist in Indian Country, and he’s been commissioned to do a series of beaded portraits in a national media campaign to promote the American Indian College Fund. The originals will be auctioned at their next gala fundraiser. ICTMN has a great interview with Marcus.

Amerman: Wieden + Kennedy, an international ad firm with an office in Portland, OR, contacted me about doing beaded ads for the AICF. They send me photos of current students who benefit from the AICF and I choose which ones I want to do based on their potential visual impact and bead-ability. They would run as full page ads in a number of national magazines such as, but not limited to, Sports illustrated, Harper’s Bazaar, Native Peoples, etc. They have just finished shooting photos of current students in New Mexico and Montana. I should receive them in two weeks and begin the third in a series of five 6.5″ x 8″ portraits which are enlarged to a full page bleed (8″ x 10″). This first image is Akisa Milk and he’s Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The AICF will retain possession of all the pieces and auction them off at their gala fundraiser, I believe. I don’t know when it is.

The ad firm gives me 4 weeks to complete a 6.5” x 8” portrait and I use that format all that time. I only work on one piece at a time because of the time it takes to configure the trays full of separated beads specific to each project.

Marcus Amerman - Courtesy Photo.

Marcus Amerman – Courtesy Photo.

Marcus is also busy making bracelets and other wondrous works for the Indian Market in Santa Fe. http://www.marcusamerman.com/

Full interview is at ICTMN.

Solidarity Sings Along.

The Chief Big Foot Riders arriving in camp to support their Hunkpapa relatives. The riders honor the memory Mniconjou Lakota Chief Bigfoot and his band of 400 people who were massacred at Wounded Knee Creek by the U.S. Army 7th Calvary. In December 1990, they began a four-year commemoration on horseback over the same trail that Chief Big Foot's band followed in 1890, paying tribute and mourning those that died 100 years ago. Credit: Thosh Collins.

The Chief Big Foot Riders arriving in camp to support their Hunkpapa relatives. The riders honor the memory Mniconjou Lakota Chief Bigfoot and his band of 400 people who were massacred at Wounded Knee Creek by the U.S. Army 7th Calvary. In December 1990, they began a four-year commemoration on horseback over the same trail that Chief Big Foot’s band followed in 1890, paying tribute and mourning those that died 100 years ago. Credit: Thosh Collins.

In Iowa, residents are also suing the government, saying that Dakota Access LLC illegally wielded eminent domain to obtain rights of way on their land. That right rests solely with utility companies, they have argued in court. A ruling is pending on that as well, according to The DesMoines Register. Construction has begun in all four states.

Dakota Access Pipeline Standoff. – Feds Grant TRO Against Standing Rock Members. – Dakota Access Protest: We’re being sued – help us fight it! – Dakota Access Standoff Calls on Obama. – Among Those Arrested… – Sacred Stone Camp: Calling Water Warriors! – Dakota Access: About That Oil… – Dakota Access Purchaser Looking Like Enron. – Standing Rock and IITC File Urgent Communication to UN. – Sacred Stone Camp. – North Dakota: State of Emergency Declared. – Solidarity Sings! – Settling into Camp – Washington DC: Action Alert – Solidarity Sings Along. –

Via ICTMN and #LastRealIndians and Simon Moya-Smith.

Where is the f*cking check?

Republican presidential nominee makes campaign stop in flood-ravaged Louisiana (Screen capture)

Republican presidential nominee makes campaign stop in flood-ravaged Louisiana (Screen capture)

The Governor of Louisiana asked the President to stay put, because rescue efforts are still going strong, and there simply are not resources to deal with something like a presidential visit, so that’s what the President did, not being an ego-bloated ass. Speaking of ego-bloated asses, when Trump announced plans to go tromping about flood ravaged Louisiana, the Governor once again asked for officials to stay put, and said if Trump wanted to help, he could donate money.  One of Trump’s advisers with sense also attempted to explain that this would be a bad idea, but no, Mr. Ego just had to show up. Why, I don’t know. What I do know is he got the exact reception he deserved from Neva Butkus.

Where is the fucking check?

“Alright, y’all,” wrote Baton Rouge resident Neva Butkus, “I need to clear some things up.”

Butkus — a Chicago native who has worked with the City Year teaching program — said that she “has spent this entire week running donation centers, organizing volunteer efforts, and will be doing demo work on houses all this weekend.”

She wrote, “Our Governor has explicitly asked Obama to NOT VISIT at this moment because our first responders are STILL saving people’s lives. YES, It has been a week and there is still standing water. Tens of thousands of people are displaced. This is a NIGHTMARE and our governor does not want to shut down interstates that are BRINGING IN SUPPLIES just to escort our President into the city.”

She went on to say that Donald Trump’s visit was not welcomed by any residents she knows because it tied up precious resources that could be used in rescue and relief efforts.

“He is exploiting an opportunity to look as if he is welcomed during a tragedy,” she said.

“Our Governor literally told him (as this article shows) that Trump is welcome in our state but if he’s coming he better be volunteering or writing a sizable check to assist with recovery,” continued Butkus. “A 60 second video of him unloading play-doh from a truck does not count.”

Finally, she demanded, “Trump. Seriously. Where is the check. Like where is the fucking check. My people are drowning. My co-workers and family and friends have lost everything. My friends and co-workers that haven’t lost everything are taking off work (my boyfriend is taking PTO) to clean out people’s homes and rip out sheet rock and carpet. Give us money or GTFO. I don’t want to see you in your suit in AUGUST carrying boxes off a truck like you care about us. Louisiana is an incredible place. Baton Rouge is my home and I have watched people drop EVERYTHING to help one another during this time. The whole country seems to be floored by the generosity and love that our residents show each other during tough times, but to us this is normal. This is Louisiana. And you do not belong here.”

Via Raw Story.

Lesbian and Transgender Hillbillies are Coming to Get You.

A lesbian couple sitting in a sunny field (Shutterstock.com)

A lesbian couple sitting in a sunny field (Shutterstock.com)

Well, the right wing has found something new to froth about, there are LGBT people in rural areas! Really, who knew. After all, everyone knows all LGBT people are in urban areas, struggling to get their glitter just right or something. There couldn’t possibly be native rural or Southern LGBT people, and farming? Forget about it. Of course, the truth is that there are lots of LGBT people all over the place, and queer folk in rural areas, the South in particular, have more difficulties in getting together with other queer folk, and don’t have near the resources of other rural people, especially farmers. The 15th annual Nationwide LGBT Rural Summit was held at Drake University in Des Moines, IA on Aug. 18. That would be the fifteenth one, but of course, right wing asses seemed to just now find out about it, and are joyful in the hissiness on display over yet another sign that the sky, it be falling, as all us queers are the 5th column intent on destroying the good ol’ conservative heart of Amerikka. Oh yes.

The right-wing freakout over the summit began at conservative website The College Fix, which mocked the summit, complained that it was a waste of tax money and denied that LGBT people living in rural areas might face any special hurdles.

By August 16, the Washington Free Beacon picked up the story, wailing that the summit will enable “lesbian and transgender hillbillies how to get subsidies from the government.”

“The all-day summit will teach lesbian and transgender hillbillies how to get subsidies from the government like rural housing loans and ‘community facility grants.’ Bullying will also be discussed,” said the Beacon.

Then, none other than Rush Limbaugh picked up on the story.

“Have you heard the latest Democrat scam?” Limaugh asked on his program. “Have you heard about the Agriculture Department’s financial grants to lesbian farmers? You think I’m making this up? See, this is how they do it.”

“(W)hat the point of this is, folks, it’s not about lesbian farmers. What they’re trying to do is convince lesbians to become farmers,” he insisted.

“I’m like you; I never before in my life knew that lesbians wanted to be farmers. I never knew that lesbians wanted to get behind the horse and the plow and start burrowing. I never knew it. But apparently enough money can make make it happen, and the objective here is to attack — they’re already attacking suburbs, and that has been made perfectly clear by what happened in Milwaukee. And they’re going after every geographic region that is known to be largely conservative. They never stop, folks. They are constantly on the march,” said Limbaugh, whipping the story up into another Obama conspiracy.

World Net Daily joined in the panic and ousted Breitbart.com editor Ben Shapiro’s blog The Daily Wire called it “dumbest thing Feds have EVER Spent your tax dollars on.”

Lesbian farmers don’t exist, said the Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo.

“I mean, if I don’t know that the chocolate milk I’m drinking was originally obtained from a lesbian milking a cow, things could really breakdown [sic],” she wrote.

Oh yes, we are seriously contagious there, alt right folks, so perhaps you should all get out of the rural areas, and don’t eat or drink anything you haven’t produced yourself. It’s the only way to be certain. We’re coming for you, yes we are. Yep.

Via Raw Story and Media Matters.

Sunday Facepalm

(File Photo) The man's affidavit was not accepted by court due to his stated occupation Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images.

(File Photo) The man’s affidavit was not accepted by court due to his stated occupation Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images.

An Irish High Court judge has ruled a litigant could not describe his occupation as “Disciple of Jesus Christ” in a sworn statement.

The presiding judge, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys, criticised the litigant for attempting to challenge a decision by the Residential Tenancies Board to fix a market rate for his rent, describing the case as “frivolous, grandiose and vexatious”.

He upheld the decision by the Central Office of the High Court to refuse to accept the litigant’s affidavit as it did not comply with the rules of the court, reports the Irish Times.

The Tenancies Board had stated the man and another tenant were using such court actions as a “tactic to delay and frustrate proceedings”.

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said: “The courts are not a playground in which litigants can amuse themselves at will.

“For the court to bask in self-congratulatory patience for quirky insouciance of applicants would be to play the role of a judicial free-rider.

“If such a mode of description were permitted, one could not stop the next deponent describing themselves in the opening of an affidavit as a ‘Guardian reader’ or the one after that as a ‘keen golfer’ and so on.”

Plus, we have Banana Jesus! Did this belong to Ray Comfort?

BananaJesus

There’s a slideshow at the link of various things people have found Jesus to be inexplicably occupying.

Via Independent.